In the summer of 2008, instead of basking in the glory of being Champions of England again and winning the European Cup for the third time, Manchester United fans were forced to spend 3 months hanging on every word of one man.
The fragile little Orchid that is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Despite the fact that he was only one year into his new 5-year contract, tales of unrest started to emerge from his camp whilst the rest of the squad were still throwing back the champagne. Ronaldo had an agenda, he was at the height of his powers and felt that the time was right to push through a move to ‘his beloved’ Real Madrid.
Rather than ask to speak to the manager, Ronaldo decided that it would be easier to keep the fiery Scotsman at arms length and allow the press to have a field day.
It was as if he couldn’t bring himself to say the words “I don’t want to play for Manchester United any more, let me go,” so instead we were treated on a daily basis to…
“It is my dream, but dreams do not always come true.”
“You know what I want, what I would like to happen, let’s see.”
“Only God knows” and the classic “I agree with the statements of the FIFA President” (who had suggested that United should allow him to move to Madrid & stop treating him like a ‘modern-day slave’).
A FUCKING ‘SLAVE’????
I don’t think that anyone kept him in chains and whipped him until he signed a new deal a year earlier. But when the FIFA ‘Knob’ead elect’ Sepp Blatter decides that the entire transfer system should be altered to suit your needs (yes, seriously), your ego is bound to explode.
This is where I think the problem lies with Ronaldo – in terms of ego, he’s a fully-erect penis who spends every waking hour stroking himself into a milky lather!
My opinion of Ronaldo ‘The Ego’ had already taken a huge dip prior to that rainy night in Moscow, but it was a split-second decision during the penalty shoot-out in Moscow which hammered the final ‘preening tit nail’ into the ‘preening tit coffin’.
It wasn’t his decision to try and outfox Cech by staggering his run, shit happens, it was the way that he threw himself onto the rain-sodden turf and sobbed like a spoilt child, whilst his team-mates charged upfield to congratulate Edwin Van Der Sar.
In a moment that comes along all too rarely (if ever), rather than celebrate with his mates, his crushing self-awareness clicked-in and a voice said “MAKE IT ABOUT YOU”. (If you look closely, you can see him decide to do it) I mean why be part of a crowd scene… when you can have your own one man show?
Ronaldo doesn’t like to share his stage with anyone; so imagine how he feels having Messi dancing around him like some irritating Golden-Booted Pixie! No matter what Ronnie does, how many goals he scores or how many medals he wins, there’s always going to be that element of doubt -
“Is Messi better than me?”
In my opinion, the answer’s ‘no’. You can’t get a Rizla paper between the two in terms of skill and effectiveness, they’re different but equally brilliant. Unfortunately, Ronaldo seems to think that the world revolves around him and it makes him so difficult to like.
When stories emerged this week that ‘His Dream’ may have turned sour, with him revealing he was “sad”, Twitter went into overdrive with heartfelt pleas for Ronaldo to ‘Come home’ – home? I doubt that he ever considered Manchester home. If his lifelong dream really was to play for Real, then we were merely a stepping-stone.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change anything (other than his desire to wear white) about his stint in the #7 shirt. It was a joy to watch him develop from a show pony into a thoroughbred. He provided moments that’ll go with me to the grave. But people are kidding themselves if they believe that he had anything other than Ronaldo’s best interests at heart. The adoration poured on him by United fans has become freakish. He wanted to leave and gave Sir Alex one last year as if he was a (very good) loanee – doing a job, but ultimately detached from the soul of the club.
So if anybody happens to win £100m on Euromillions, don’t buy Ronaldo for Manchester United. It’s over. It was great whilst it lasted but he’s gone, and on top of that, we all know that if the bubble has burst in Madrid and he decides that he wants to be top-dog in England again – he’ll be wearing blue!
… and I don’t think that some you could take that.
I hope Real bankrole him and pay him 300,000+ then fall foul of the Financial Fair Play Regs. These type of problems you face when you have to appease footballing prima donna’s. I loved Ronnie at Utd and for a fair and reasonable price I would have him back tommos. But not for inflated wages. Best he’s preened by people with more dosh then sense.
He’ll be wearing blue? haha think that oil money has gone to naive peoples mind
How could any united fan slag off Ronaldo? He single handedly won us everything. The fact he didn’t say to Ferguson about a transfer was probably hard from a man he described as a father figure after his father died. Bitter and naive apparent ‘united’ fans. As for him wearing blue! He said his dream was to only ever play for united and real before returning to his home team. Read his book you may learn a thing or 2.
wow dude, you seem very bitter. There are players who have treated united worse , far worse than ronnie so i dont see why you hating!
He cried , so what? even though he may have a massive ego , it is entirely possible that prior to VDS save, he felt HE had crushed HIS biggest dream by missing te penalty. A complete and Thorough professional (which many will attest to) would feel like he should have scored that, no excuses. So dude? chill.
And to add to that you actually say “If you look closely, you can see him decide to do it”. Get serious mate , that just sounds desperate.
He was a great player born in Portugal growing up watching Legends of the game at Madrid. Fair play to him he wanted to move. Not like he left without delivering ala fabregas and co.
Give the lad some credit, he is a prima-a-dona . However, considering how good he is, he can be whatever he wants.
He’s wearing blue? Doubt it . Its likely but its hardly a said and done thing. When a club gets the opportunity to sign a 27 year old legend, a club like united even with the glazers, they will pay him. They’ll pay him BIG.
And lets be fair messi is hardly running circles around him! 63 goals to 73 . The difference of 10 isn’t far when put into perspective of the number of goals they scored. A player scores 60 goals, you cant ask him for more. He s exceptional. Just like messi.
Plus he won the la liga so his goals were more vital or decisive than messi’s .
Disagree but good article nonetheless
Ronaldo was one of the best players I’ve seen play for UTD, I’d have him back at UTD in a heartbeat given the chance.
Really really rubbish article. NO ONE would deny Ronaldo is a vedette, a prima donna, over inflated with his own ego. But… did he really treated United that bad? Personally, I have only read nice comments of him about SAF, United and its fans.
Messi running circles? Come on mate, I think you’ve got issues with the boy. He’s on top of the best players in the world along with Messi.
if he decides to go to City for the money, I would call him a mercenary and hate him almost as much as you do. But Ronnie has got plenty of money, and he would be top earner at United anyways. Would get him in a snap if available.
I would recommend you to sort your feelings out, they’re starting to mess with you reasoning.
I largely agree. He is a hopelessly selfish and egocentric lad who gets into a strop when the world takes his eye off him for a second which is what has happened at Madrid. A few players are tired of him and the fans have never really warmed to him. I live here and other than a few screaming girls very few Madrid fans would be too bothered to see him go. He thinks they should be bowing before him seeing that he is the star and is running the show and if he came to United or went wherever that wouldn’t change. That upsets other players and unbalances a squad and after a while can be become
difficult to manage particularly when the player is going out of his way to seek attention. Any club would take his talents but do they want to take all the hissy-fits that goes with that and risk pissing everyone off to accomodate one player? A few would think twice and
at 27 and after scoring 150 goals in 149 games he is not going to be cheap either to sign or to maintain and I definitely couldn’t see United shelling out 100m+ and 15 or 20m on wages.
One of the best ‘players’ at Old Trafford in our history I think, but ‘Legend’……not a chance. For united fans to still sing his name from the terraces, is, for me, is a priviledge for the select few who gave everything to play for our club. There are many players that deserve the recognition before the selfish Cristiano.
Great player, not a legend, stop singing his name and try replacing it with ‘theres only one Bryan Robson’.
He did say his dream club was Madrid as we know but he also supported United, describes Sir Alex as a father figure and has said if he left Madrid, he’ll want to return to United as he’d want to come back ‘home’. I respect your opinion in this post but I think Ronaldo gets more criticism than he deserves
Ronaldo might be a good player but I wouldn’t want him back, he is cocky arrogant and a ball hog. You talk about how he won us everything it was a team effort if Edwin Van Der Sar didn’t get clean sheets we wouldn’t have won games and I didn’t see Ronaldo being bothered about helping he wanted the ball to show off and make runs down the pitch. Another reason I wouldn’t want him back is you would have to think of other players for example Wayne Rooney when Ronaldo, Tevez and berbatov were the front four with Rooney he was pushed out of position to the left wing a place now held by Nani and Young, I wouldn’t take him back into the team when we have built a new team with the money that we got from the selfish primadonna. I didn’t like him as a player when he was at united but when he was at united I liked him scoring for our club rather than against us. Yet whos is to say if we did buy him back he wouldn’t piss off somewhere else the first chance he got?
the matter of fact is unietd are rubbish all tghose years since ronaldo and tevez left. you can’;t deny this – we barely winning just scraping results, then last time iuniteds played good against v. good side?? although he coming back it’s more afantasy than reality